Green Mountain Power’s carbon reduction goals double this year

Green Mountain Power is employing new energy-efficient programs to lower its carbon emissions extensively throughout 2018 and the coming years.

The Vermont energy utility is teaming up with customers to drive down costs and reduce energy emissions by offering low-cost loans, rebates and programs like residential heating essentials, electric vehicle chargers and custom projects for commercial and industrial customers.

The partnership will drive down the overall energy cost for consumers while eliminating more than 8,000 metric tons of carbon emissions every year for the next 20 years, totaling to roughly 160,000 metric tons.

Green Mountain Power

Green Mountain Power serves more than 270,000 residential and business customers across Vermont.

This is the equivalent to removing 3,000 cars off the roads every year for the next two decades, according to a company press release.

Kristin Carlson, vice president of strategic and external affairs for GMP, said it is the company’s core mission to deliver a clean, reliable energy future for its customers.

“This is a part of state goals for all utilities to transition folks to cleaner energy sources and do it in a way that is cost effective,” Carlson told True North Reports. “We’re really committed to delivering these lower cost, lower carbon energy solutions. Our customers are really engaged and committed to action.”

Jay Kullman, sustainable resources director at Farm & Wilderness summer camps in Plymouth, Vt., said the nonprofit has benefited immensely from the company’s efforts to offer clean renewable energy.

“They helped us with a grant to install solar power on one of our facilities’ roofs. So that is a very direct benefit,” Kullman said.

All of the facilities at Farm & Wilderness are equipped with Sensibo, a remote-controlled monitoring system allowing them to keep track of their heating pumps to be as efficient as possible.

“With the heat pump program, they’re so efficient, but the cost-of-production factor is very high and it’s actually reduced our heating bills compared to propane,” Kullman said. “I think the carbon reduction strategy that they’re employing is really just helping us all.”

Kullman added that Farm & Wilderness has its own yearly carbon reduction goals set in place and have been able to exceed those goals through the help of GMP as well as Efficiency Vermont.

“We have a greenhouse gas report every year … (and) we have reduced our greenhouse gases by over 30 percent over the last five years,” Kullman said. “They’ve been amazingly helpful.”

Briana Bocelli is a freelance writer for True North Reports. She lives in the Northeast Kingdom and is a senior at Castleton University.

Image courtesy of Green Mountain Power